This document explains how to recover a Catalyst 4500/4000 Series
Supervisor II-Plus (WS-X4013+), Supervisor III (WS-X4014), Supervisor IV
(WS-X4515), or Supervisor V (WS-X4516) from a missing or corrupted system
image, or an incorrect boot variable. The Supervisor II-Plus, III, IV or V
module image can sometimes be corrupted during a Trivial File Transfer Protocol
(TFTP) download, or when manually deleted by the user. The switch provides a
number of ways to recover should any of these events occur on these Supervisor
Engines.

The Catalyst 4500/4000 Series Supervisor II-Plus, III, IV and V runs
Cisco IOS® software only, and does not run Catalyst OS software. If you wish to
try to recover a Catalyst 4500/4000 Series Supervisor (I and II) that runs
Catalyst OS, refer to this document:

When the Supervisor II-Plus, III, IV or V-equipped switch boots up or
resets, there are these two possibilities:

The switch starts up normally and displays the
Hostname> prompt or the default
Switch> prompt.

The switch cannot find the image, the image is corrupt, no image is
present in the bootflash device, or the boot variable is set incorrectly and
therefore winds up in ROM monitor (ROMmon) mode. It displays the
rommon> prompt. In ROMmon mode, the switch
must be able to locate a valid system image from either the bootflash device or
the slot0 Compact Flash card. These Supervisor Engines also provide an Ethernet
Management port (10/100 Base T), which is available only from ROMmon mode and
can be configured to download a new valid image through TFTP from a TFTP
process. There is no option for Xmodem or Ymodem which allows you to copy an
image through the console port.

In addition to the 64 MB internal Flash Single In-Line Memory Module
(SIMM), these Supervisor Engines have one Type 1 Compact Flash card slot which
has a capacity of up to 128 MB. If the system or the boot image should fail,
theses devices provide a backup. These mentioned Flash devices are recognized
in ROMmon, and the images stored there can be used to recover. The Flash device
is optional, which can be obtained from Cisco or a third-party supplier. Refer
to this document for more information related to using Compact Flash with
Supervisor II-Plus, III, IV or V:

. The information in this document is applicable only for Catalyst
4500/4000 Series switches using Supervisor Engine II-Plus, III, IV or V.

The information in this document was created from the devices in a
specific lab environment. All of the devices used in this document started with
a cleared (default) configuration. If your network is live, make sure that you
understand the potential impact of any command.

When the switch operates normally, it is at the
hostname> prompt or the default
Switch> prompt. You can issue the
dir bootflash: or dir
slot0: commands to view the contents of the Supervisor Flash
devices, as this example shows. Issue the verify
command to determine if the image has a valid checksum, as this example shows:

Since the switch recognizes all Flash devices in ROMmon mode, you can
issue the dir
<device-name> commands to show the
Flash contents, as is demonstrated in the remaining sections of this document.

Notice in the previous example, there is only a single boot image in
bootflash. You can have as many system images as you can fit in either the
bootflash: or slot0:. Bootflash size is fixed at 64 MB, whereas slot0: Compact
Flash is available in 64 MB or 128 MB options. How to manage the bootflash and
Flash cards is up to you, but consider distributing the images between these
devices for more redundancy in case of a failure.

The configuration register has been changed incorrectly. The
configuration register value of 0x0 always brings the switch to ROMmon mode.
The typical configuration register is 0x2102, with the boot system
flash command pointing to the system image to load. Refer to this
document for more information about the configuration register:

The switch might end up in a continuous reboot sequence if the boot
variable is not set to the correct system image file and proper destination
device. For example, the configuration register value of 0x2102 requires that a
boot variable is specified by issuing the boot system
flash configuration command.

This output is an example of a situation in which an incorrect boot
image is specified when setting up the boot variable, which prevents the
booting of the system image. This output is only seen on the console of the
switch, as the switch is not yet functional.

You should already have a console connection to the Supervisor to
see the previous output and perform the recovery. On a standard Windows
operating system platform, configure a HyperTerminal connection directly to
COM1 with these settings:

9600 bps

Eight data bits

No parity

One stop bit

Flow control = none

Use a rolled male RJ-45 cable to connect from COM1 on the PC to the
console port on the Supervisor module. Use a DB-9 connector on the PC.

The reboot continues until autoboot is prevented when you press
Control-C and go into ROMmon mode.

Note: The reason the switch reboots continuously is because the system
image file name specified does not exist, but there is a valid file in the
bootflash and slot0:. Also, the system image file name specified is case
sensitive. If it is not specified correctly, it causes a continuous reboot.

Since you have the required system image file present in the
bootflash:, you can issue the boot
bootflash:<filename> command to boot
the switch. Issue the boot
slot0:<filename> command if you want
to load the system from the file present in slot0:. The system is booted with
that specified image. If the switch fails to load due to the specified system
image being corrupt, or the valid system file is not present, see the
Recover from a Corrupt or Missing Image section
of this document.

The Supervisor boots into ROMmon mode if the image specified is corrupt
or no image file exists. Typically, you should have more than one image in the
bootflash: or slot0: devices so that the switch can be recovered.

Complete these steps, in the order given, to facilitate a successful
image recovery from ROMmon mode without any valid image.

Make a console connection to the Supervisor. Typically on a
standard Windows operating system platform, configure a HyperTerminal
connection directly to COM1 with these settings:

9600 BPS

Eight data bits

No parity

One stop bit

One stop bit

Use a rolled male RJ-45 cable to connect from COM1 on the PC to the
console port on the Supervisor module. Use a DB-9 connector on the PC, and a
HyperTerminal connect window to connect to the Supervisor.

Press Enter. If you get the rommon
> prompt, skip to Step 3. If the switch continuously
reboots, press Control-C to prevent autoboot and to get into
ROMmon mode.

Verify that there is a valid file present in the bootflash: by
issuing the dir bootflash: command, and the
dir slot0: command to check the slot0:, as this
example shows. If you do have any valid file, see the Recovering from a Continuous Reboot section of this
document for the recovery. Otherwise, continue to the next step.

Issue the unset boot command to clear
the current invalid boot variable, which defines the file to load.

rommon 6 >unset boot

Connect the management port on the Supervisor to the network to
access a TFTP server. The Fast Ethernet port (10/100 MGT) on the Supervisor
Engine is inoperative in normal operation in current software releases. An
Ethernet cable plugged into the 10/100 MGT is active only in ROMmon mode. Refer
to this example of a Catalyst 4500/4000 Series Supervisor Engine II-Plus, III,
IV or V for the location of the MGT port:

As this example shows, if you plan to connect the 10/100 MGT port
to the PC/Router directly, use a straight cable. If you connect to another
switch, use a crossover cable.

rommon 7 >
!--- Connect the appropriate cable to connect to the network.Established physical link 100MB Full Duplex
Network layer connectivity may take a few seconds

The MGT port auto-negotiates speed and duplex with the connected
device. Currently, you can not hardcode speed and duplex settings. Since this
port is available only in ROMmon mode and for TFTP only, it is not a major
concern if the speed and duplex are mismatched due to any potential
auto-negotiating problem. The TFTP application has an internal packet loss
mechanism to prevent any corruption of the system image being downloaded.

Issue the set interface fa1 <ip
address> <subnet
mask> command to configure an IP address for the
10/100 MGT port, as this example shows. If the subnet mask is not specified,
the IP address would take the default classful mask.

rommon 7 >set interface fa1 14.18.2.234 255.255.255.0

Issue the set ip route default
<gateway_ip_address> command to
configure the default gateway for the switch to use to get to the TFTP server,
as this example shows. The default gateway should be a routing device in the
same subnet as the IP address configured in Step 7.

rommon 8 >set ip route default 14.18.2.21

In ROMmon versions earlier than 12.1(12r)EW, even if the TFTP
server is in the same subnet as the 10/100 MGT port, you still need to
configure the default gateway by issuing the set ip route
default <gateway_ip_address>
command. If you are directly connecting your PC, which has the TFTP server
application installed, use the IP address of the PC for the default gateway IP
address. If the default gateway is not configured, the TFTP can not be
performed. This restriction is resolved starting in ROMmon version 12.1(12r)EW
or later. You do not need to specify the default gateway IP address if the TFTP
server is in the same subnet as the management IP address.

Issue the set command to verify the
configurations which have been made.

Ping the TFTP server to ensure that there is connectivity to the
server from the MGT port on the Supervisor Engine. Enter the ping
<tftp_server_ip_address> command, as
this example shows:

rommon 9 >ping 172.18.125.3
Host 172.18.125.3 is alive

If the ping is not successful, troubleshoot the IP connectivity
issue from the default gateway to the TFTP server. If the TFTP server is the
same subnet, make sure it is configured with the IP address you are pinging.

Once the ping to the TFTP server is successful, you can issue the
boot
tftp://<tftp_server_ip_address>/<image_path_and_file_name>
command to specify the system image which is available in the TFTP server to
boot the Supervisor III.

The switch has booted with the image it got from the TFTP server by
copying it to the DRAM. The image is not yet copied onto the bootflash:, and
therefore it has to be copied again into the bootflash: or slot0:. Issue the
enable command, and provide the password if one is
needed to enter into EXEC mode, as this example shows:

Switch>enable
Password:
Switch#

Note: If you have accidentally deleted the system image, you can issue
the dir /all command to check the deleted file, and
issue the undelete <file index number>
<device> command to undelete the file. This
prevents you from having to TFTP the new file. If this is the case, skip to
Step 17.

Ping the TFTP server by issuing the ping
<tftp_server_ip_address> command to make sure
the TFTP server is reachable, as this example shows:

If the ping is successful, skip to Step 15. If not, make sure you
have a connection to the TFTP server from the switch. Typically you have to
connect one of the regular 10/100 ports or Gigabit ports to another switch, or
connect the TFTP server installed PC directly to one of the switch interfaces.

Note: The IP address of the TFTP server and the file has already been
preselected since you used the information for the transfer of the image to the
bootflash:. If you would like to change it, type the new IP address or image
name. Otherwise, press Enter and the preselected information
is used.

The system image has been copied. Issue the dir
bootflash: command to note the file in the bootflash:. Issue the
dir slot0: command if you loaded the system file
into the slot0.

You might have to remove any existing incorrect boot variables and
add the correct one, as this example shows. In this example, the configuration
register is already at the desired 0x2102 value. If this is not the case, issue
the global config-register 0x2102 command.